Archived: Insiders Thread

[MovieTime]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Check the AVMS archives, it's all there. Sorry, I don't have the time or inclination to provide links but, longtime readers of AVMS know what I say is true.

It just amazes me that somebody like the A-man can get away with constantly telling untruths in the past and people continue to believe whatever his current FUD is.

Sorry I refused to go back to the AVS. I can't deal with all the bickering back and forth it gives me a headache.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Penton, given what Amir is doing, what is the possibility in your opinion that Sony can/would/should send at least the nasty lawyer letter over to MS? Cause what Amir is doing has to be actionable at this point.

It’s not worth their time because he’s pretty much a joke to people in the business (on both sides of the aisle for that matter).

Look at the recent statement from the Disney spokeman regarding Amir applying for some sort of journalist credential with that studio. I don't have the exact comment on the tip of my tongue but, feel free to find it and post it here.

[MatrixS2000]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

The whole thing is ridiculous. Why all of a sudden was the initial rule “unworkable” ?

Well considering that the new rules was in place all of what a few hours or a couple of days - you don't mean to say that that is hardly duration enough to gauge whether the situation was workable??? How can a such a short period of time be meaningfully gaged against the past?

[scott1256ca]

Chad Campbell (at least I think it is him) was doing a PGA commercial that ran for a while where he said his parents had told him "If you have to tell people how great you are, you're probably not that great". Everytime I watch or hear speeches from conferences like IFA, and see the HD DVD side dump on BD and tell everyone how wonderful HD DVD is and how bad BD is, I am reminded of that. Some of the insiders on AVS should take that to heart.

By the way, I may not have that quote exactly right, but you get the gist of it.

[pepar]

The thread doesn't have to actually *be* fair, it only needs to look like that to those with un-formed opinions who wander in. My guess is that the beneficiaries of the thread complained too loudly about being muzzled, hence the revised rule. I know this post will find it's way there and that I will be pilloried for it. Caca passa.

[phloyd]

Originally Posted by MovieTime

Pent can you please provide sources to your comments. It would help.

Pretty much all of what PM said here was in the insider thread over the past couple of years.

Well, Amir only posts there so where else would it be? Heheh...

Probably best to use Google since the forum search is crap and a lot of these posts will be archived and not show up in the current searches.

[phloyd]

Question for paidgeek:

Do you have information on the Australian release of the Spiderman box?

I believe it has been said that the non-US Spidermen will be region ABC, yes?

Can you also confirm or comment on the reported street date of 19th September?

It seems like an odd date given it is around 5 weeks ahead of the USA...?

Will the Spiderman set use BD+ at all? Is there any word on what the first BD+ title(s) will be?

Sorry for so many questions (puts a ten in the jar ).

Thanks!

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

Paidgeek,

Any timing on Men in Black, The Mask of Zorro, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or Hudson Hawk?

I can't give anything specific, but at least a couple of these will be out next year.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by bambam1901

Insiders,

Just curious what your take is on all the POTC talk today. I'm surprised I haven't seen it mentioned yet anywhere on this site. Personally, I've seen both Pirates movies on blu-ray and did not notice any such issues. They were 2 of the best movies I've seen to date as far as PQ/AQ. Once again, I regret visiting AVS. One poster went so far as to say he'd rather have POTC on DVD because of this situation. On a totally unrelated note, when the hell did everyone in the world go completely nuts?

If you are talking about the framing issue, I don't know what happened there. I'll see what I can find out, but it might take a while before I run in to the right person at Disney to answer.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by bmr76

Hi, im pretty new to this forum, and I was wondering if you guys could answer this question. How long does it take to master something to hd for blu ray from start to getting on a disc? Do they scan each frame of film? Generally whats the biggest hold up of getting a title to blu ray? Last question, how many discs can be done by one studio, do they have multiple teams make the blu ray versions, like is sony working on multiple bds, or is it in order, same team keeps cranking them out? Thanks guys-love this thread.

Probably the most time consuming step is getting an approved transfer. The film elements are scanned these days, but the time consuming bit is color correction, plus any other adjustments that the films director, editor or other responsible person wants to make. The entire compression, authoring, QC process can be completed in a week. Replication packaging and distribution take a few weeks. As a practical matter, 90 days from the start of transfer to the street date of the disc is realistic. For a AAA title like Casino Royale, Spiderman and similar, it will take longer because more added value and other creative elements will be included.

Several people can work on a single title in parallel on different parts of the process and several teams will be working at once. It's not unusual to have 10 or 20 projects going at any give time.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by frank_t

men in black would be quite nice.

It will be a good title, but it needs to be developed to its potential.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Jish

paidgeek,

Is Almost Famous on the schedule somewhere? It looks like it is Columbia/Dreamworks - not sure exactly how the distribution rights work.

It is a beautiful film on DVD and the soundtrack is great - would be amazing in Blu-ray I think...

I have not seen it on the schedule.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by lokus

paidgeek/Insiders,
Is The Goonies on the schedule anywhere? The 25th anniversary is 2010 but this is my all time favorite movie. Thanks in advance.

I have not seen this on the schedule either.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Neo65

paid,

With the BoG BD version purportedly showing a 45Mbps peak in a few screenshots, would it be possible for the person who did the encode for this disk to comment on the parameters of this encode?

I am particularly interested in things such as what quantization(s) was picked, maximum frame bitcount, accuracy of encoded frames against the original, how often the deblocking filter kicks in, etc.

Since this disk is in extremely short supply, perhaps the people who spent all that time on the disk could be asked to make a few comments on their experience. Since they're not going to work on paramount titles for a while, this might be the best time to try to get them to give us some of their valuable time.

Such insights into the disk authoring/encoding would be invaluable to all.

TIA.

ps. I appreciate that you've always refrained from commenting on the internals of your competition's topics, that level of professionalism is rare these days in internet forums.

We can't really comment on a Paramount title, and I don't think we encoded that one. It might have been Deluxe. Such a pity that high quality completed work is not being released to market...

[daman]

To all Insiders,

Not sure if it's approriate to ask so you can ignore but how the people at other studio and involved in this HDM business think about what Amir and HD-DVD insiders post on AVM$.

Their being smarter than us average consumers can smell the FUD from miles away. Do they read Amir's post and smirk or have to restrain themselves ?

Or they just laugh at Amir & Co and go about their business ?

[bear]

Paidgeek, again many thanks for your contributions to this community.

Have you heard anything about "The Nightmare Before Christmas" coming to Blu-ray?

Thank you.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by phloyd

Question for paidgeek:

Do you have information on the Australian release of the Spiderman box?

I believe it has been said that the non-US Spidermen will be region ABC, yes?

Can you also confirm or comment on the reported street date of 19th September?

It seems like an odd date given it is around 5 weeks ahead of the USA...?

Will the Spiderman set use BD+ at all? Is there any word on what the first BD+ title(s) will be?

Sorry for so many questions (puts a ten in the jar ).

Thanks!

Spiderman in Australia will be region coded ABC.

As far as I know it is scheduled for a September release. I don't know how this date was arrived at, but it makes sense that it would be ahead of the US in order to encourage consumers to get the localized version.

It does not use BD+. I don't know what the first title will be from SPE or any other studio that uses it.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by daman

To all Insiders,

Not sure if it's approriate to ask so you can ignore but how the people at other studio and involved in this HDM business think about what Amir and HD-DVD insiders post on AVM$.

Their being smarter than us average consumers can smell the FUD from miles away. Do they read Amir's post and smirk or have to restrain themselves ?

Or they just laugh at Amir & Co and go about their business ?

I think persons from BD industries look around the forums from time to time. After all, there have been threads in the past that contain good information. When the threads are reduced to 5 or 6 people bickering back and forth, its just not worth sifting through.

[daman]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

I think I will answer this one. Paidgeek will have to restrain himself as he posts in an official sense.

Short answer, yes. I was showing my boss a lot of the crap that Amir has posted on AVMS through the last couple of years. He found it extremely funny.

I showed him the post I made about the $200/disc claim, I think he just though Amir was a complete prat. He also shot off a call to someone inside Sony asking for the official numbers and I can tell you now that it is way less than that.

I was also told that I wouldn't be allowed to post on AVS anymore in case they do get wind of where I work.

Thank you for the response, Max

I for one, would think that all the energy and enthusiasm would serve his camp much better if he stops taking snide comments about BDA. If he acts more professionally, it will bring so many potential converts.

Not that we can convert any hardcore fans from either HD-DVD or BD.

I also appreciate the fact that many BD insiders refrain from personal attacks on AVM$. It's a very smart moves to do. there is no upside in doing it.

We would do fine by turning out great movies, less expensive players and the consumers (us) will take care of the rest.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by bear

Paidgeek, again many thanks for your contributions to this community.

Have you heard anything about "The Nightmare Before Christmas" coming to Blu-ray?

Thank you.

I don't see it anywhere.

I realize that many of you are enthusiastic about your favorite titles coming to Blu-ray, but as I have mentioned in the past, I am not comfortable answering schedule questions because, honestly, the schedule changes all the time. There is no problem asking me for details about titles that have been annouced, but I would appreciate it if the members would refrain from asking me about all 4000 titles in our catalog. After all, every title has its fans and will have its day on Blu-ray.